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What do game developers make in salary?

A new game developer survey conducted by Gamastura shows what the average game maker takes home in terms of a yearly salary, and, surprisingly enough, it's a drop.

Gamasutra recently conducted a 2014 Game Developer Salary Survey, an annual survey it holds every year to see what the general take-home pay is for people in development, including audio, design, programming, business and management.

Overall, game developers within the U.S. managed to make $83,060 on average over the course of 2013, and while that's a high number, it's actually a lower one than 2012, down 2 percent.

The business and management salaries seem to rule overall, averaging $101,572, while audio professionals ($95,682) and programmers ($93,521) follow closely behind. As to who makes the least amount of money, quality assurance professionals sit at the bottom with $54,833. Still not too shabby, tho.

“There were major transitions in 2013 that affected the way game developers make a living,” said Gamasutra editor-in-chief Kris Graft. “Whether talking about the advancements in the democratization of game development, or the release of a new generation of consoles, it was a year in which the disruption and chaos of prior years settled in just enough for game developers to identify and adapt to a new reality. Despite the challenges, there’s still an undercurrent of enthusiasm.”

Other stats from the survey indicate that solo indie developers made an average of $11,812 (a startling drop of 49 percent from the previous year), while members of an indie team managed to earn $50,833 (up 161 percent from the previous year).